CTO
David MacDonald
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
MEDIA DIVISION
John Whelan

Top Stories &
Honorable Mentions

THE END OF 2011 is upon us, which can only mean one thing: It’s time for NU to assemble its annual list of
the Top 10 stories of the year. With such
a high number of news events to consider
as legitimate candidates, deciding on the
final lineup was a daunting challenge.

While no actual fisticuffs broke out
in the office, individual editors were
lobbying hard for their favorites—and
were able to make strong cases by
pointing to the large number of articles
we published throughout the year on
the topics they felt deserved a place in
the spotlight.

In the end—after re-reading every article in every issue and reflecting late
into the night on which of these issues
mattered most to our readers (no eggnog
was harmed during these midnight-oil-burning sessions)—we have created a Top
10 list that we believe nails the trends that
defined the year—and affected how everyone approached their work.

The list starts on page 12, and the year’s
Top Story (little drummer boy, drum roll
please) can be found on page 26 (if you
were one of those kids who had to get
an early peek at the presents). As with all
our lists, we invite you to submit your
own Top 10 list: Which industry events
affected you the most this year?

Since we had to leave so many important stories off the list, I thought I’d
dedicate this space to the Honorable Mention topics: Vital stories that had everyone
talking and were close—darn close—to
making the cut.

JBond Insurance Bruises: Battered by the
financial meltdown, 2011 was a rough
year for bond insurers such as Ambac,
which reported losses of just under $1
billion for the first nine months of 2011;
and MBIA, which reported a nine-month
net loss of $693 million. Ambac filed for
bankruptcy at the end of last year, and
MBIA has been embroiled in lawsuits with
banks all year.

JD&O in Demand: Two lines of insurancedid make our Top 10 list—and D&O wasnext in line, as Dodd-Frank, and greaterscrutiny of corporate governance in gen-eral, helped make this coverage a hotcommodity.